For the past few weeks, there has been an alarming rate of news related to the environment, in particular the melting of glaciers, coming out of China. When I first saw it via my usual news feed, I had thought it was just another report but almost everyday since then, the news from there doesn’t seem to give it a break. As right now, it keeps pouring out.
The report came out after a Sino-US team released the result of their observation of the situation in Himalaya near Tibet. The most important finding is that the glaciers there are shrinking at 7% per year and it is expected to disappear within 100 years. Previously, the glaciers have been shrinking at 5%. Seeing the first derivative as increasing is one thing, seeing the second derivative as increasing is another.
This immediately announces the danger of China facing great floods sooner or later, frequently, as mentioned in the report. China so far has been able to tame its rivers through a set of dams. However, I don’t think the dams will be able to control the rivers with the glaciers receding at the current rate.
Despite being concern with this news, I don’t know how bad 7% is. As someone once said to me, one cannot fully understand the statistics until one sees the real thing. But, I once saw a picture of a glacier in South America; it was probably in the Andes. There was a team of explorers wandering off somewhere and the place was full of ice. It was a huge glacier. Ten years later, the same team visited the very same site again and found that the place has been relinquished of its white background. The glacier has in fact receded a few kilometers away upward. If that is how bad 7% is, it is alarming.
